Royal MS 13 A XXII, f.2v Dragon initial ‘S’ at the beginning of the Historia...

Dragon initial ‘S’ at the beginning of the Historia Langobardorum (History of the Lombards), from Mont Saint-Michel (British Library, Royal MS 13 A xxii, f. 2v, detail). Paul the Deacon’s (b. c. 720, d. 799) written history of the Lombard people is one of the earliest accounts of the Lombard settlement of Italy in the sixth century. Paul was a Benedictine monk and possibly composed this work at the abbey of Montecassino, outside Rome. The text was written after the fall of the Lombard kingdom to the Frankish king Charlemagne (r. 768–814) in 774, and the work traced the history of the Lombards from their legendary origins in the first century until shortly before the Frankish invasion. This 11th-century manuscript of the history was copied at the Benedictine abbey of Mont Saint-Michel, possibly by the Norman scribe Mauritius. The book travelled to St Augustine’s abbey, Canterbury after the Norman scribe Scollandus was made abbot there in 1072.